WBTV

About WBTV

WBTV serves the Charlotte, North Carolina market, the country's 22nd largest DMA. WBTV News produces 30+ hours of local news programming each week. WBTV signed on in 1949 as the Carolinas'​ first television station and is the oldest station between Richmond and Atlanta. Founded by Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro (predecessor of Jefferson-Pilot), it is now owned and operated by Raycom Media of Montgomery, Alabama. The station is licensed in Charlotte and broadcasts through an analog signal on channel 3 and through a digital signal on channel 23. WBTV has pioneered TV programming in Charlotte during the past 60+ years. It was the first to show a live network program (a football game between Notre Dame and North Carolina), the first to use videotape, the first to air a local live color program, the first to mount a live camera in a NASCAR stock car, the first to broadcast in stereo sound and the first to debut closed captioning on its nightly newscasts.